Commentary
Curriculum & Instruction, Teachers & School Leaders
Why are teachers missing so much school?
Editor’s note: This was first published on the author’s Substack, The Education Daly.
Commentary
Charter Schools, Curriculum & Instruction, Private School Choice, Teachers & School Leaders
The “no excuses” model is due for a renaissance
Many of the conditions that led to the prominence of “no-excuses” charter schools a quarter-century ago have returned. For students, teachers, and parents who have never lost their appetite for safe and orderly schools, it can’t come soon enough.
Commentary
Governance
Four states that are leading the charge for conservative education
It’s looking like this year’s election will feature a Trump-Biden rematch—a pairing that’s especially frustrating for education, where the nation is wrestling with a raft of real problems:
Commentary
Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction, Teachers & School Leaders
We know more about improving math outcomes than policy debates suggest
I recently watched a seventh-grade math lesson that did a better job than I ever did as a teacher asking kids relatable theoretical probability questions. How would you represent the probability of a six-foot-tall seventh grader? How would you represent the probability of getting a test in school in any given week? Making sense of where students were coming from was a fascinating puzzle.
Commentary
Commentary
What we're reading this week: March 14, 2024
Outdated research created a false promise that tutoring could achieve two-standard deviations of academic gains in students. —Paul T. von Hippel, Education Next Joe Biden could court more votes for his struggling campaign by endorsing charter schooling.
Podcast
School Finance
#911: The flaws in school funding formulas, with Rebecca Sibilia
On this week’s Education Gadfly Show podcast, Rebecca Sibilia, the executive director of EdFund, joins Mike and David to deb
Commentary
Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Advanced Education, Teachers & School Leaders
Can we ditch the “gifted” label and just focus on what each student needs?
Editor’s note: This was first published by The 74.
Commentary
Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders
Doing educational equity right: Grading
The way we grade student work is flawed—in some ways inequitable—and is in need of reform. But like so many things in American education, the push for “equitable grading” has often been implemented piecemeal, bringing along with it all manner of unintended consequences, the most important of which is lowered standards.
Commentary
Evidence-Based Learning, Charter Schools, Governance
The research is clear: Charter schools work
Late last year, researchers Sarah Cohodes and Susha Roy partnered with the MIT Department of Economics to release a paper summarizing the results of lottery-based charter studies. The topline conclusion is straightforward and promising:
Commentary
Governance
What if Jeb Bush had won?
Neither of the major parties’ presumptive presidential nominees has anything serious in the offing to help American students get back on track.
Commentary
Evidence-Based Learning, Governance
How to build a better public school choice program: Evidence from Los Angeles
School choice discussions often overlook intradistrict open enrollment, allowing students to attend any public school within their resident district.
Commentary
Evidence-Based Learning
Most college graduates face underemployment upon bachelor’s degree attainment
Most young people who enroll in college after high school graduation do so in the hope that it will help them secure a good job. Similarly, many employers look to colleges as sources of high-quality candidates to fill job openings.
Commentary
Commentary
What we're reading this week: March 7, 2024
Due to demographic changes and the democratization of expertise, AI could help rebuild the middle class, not destroy their jobs. —David Autor, Noēma School choice stands to benefit, not harm, rural communities.
Podcast
Governance
#910: Reforming Houston ISD, with Mike Miles
On this week’s Education Gadfly Show podcast, Mike Miles, the superintendent of Houston ISD, joins Mike and David to discuss the reforms he’s impl
Commentary
Accountability & Testing, Evidence-Based Learning, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders
The way we set grade-level norms on tests masks pandemic learning loss
There are, generally speaking, two ways to report students’ performance on tests. One is normative, and it compares a student’s performance to his peers. The second is criterion, and it compares a student’s performance to learning standards, indicating grade-level proficiency and is independent of peers’ test performance.
Commentary
Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction, Teachers & School Leaders
The hazards of “equity grading”
The push for more “equitable” grading policies has exacerbated grade inflation while yielding little evidence of greater learning. Some aspects of traditional grading can indeed perpetuate inequities, but top-down policies that make grading more lenient are not the answer, especially as schools grapple with the academic and behavioral challenges of the post-pandemic era.
Commentary
Governance, Teachers & School Leaders
Getting education (almost) right
Rick Hess and Mike McShane have provided the education world with a thoughtful, accessible, perceptive, and—in its way—persuasive book on improving education. Though sub-titled (and marketed as) “a conservative vision,” it’s both more and less than that.
Commentary
Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction, Teachers & School Leaders
Study outlier teachers to solve the homework gap
My friend Michael Petrilli just wrote a great essay about the “homework gap.” He sets aside the upper-class question (stressed out kids with too much of it) and steers readers to the gap (some kids do what’s assigned, some kids copy and cheat, and some kids skip it).
Commentary
Evidence-Based Learning, School Finance, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders
ESSER funds are ending. What does this mean for pandemic learning loss?
Districts have used almost $190 billion in ESSER funds to help students recover from pandemic learning loss by implementing a wide variety of initiatives, including
Commentary
Commentary
What we're reading this week: February 29, 2024
Approximately half of college graduates work jobs that don’t use the skills and knowledge from their degree. —Wall Street Journal A recent Supreme Court action allows schools to consider socioeconomic status, but not race, in admissions decisions.
Podcast
Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction
#909: Rethinking “equitable” grading, with Adam Tyner and Meredith Coffey
On this week’s Education Gadfly Show podcast, Adam Tyner and Meredith Coffey, the national research director and a se
Report
Think Again: Does "equitable" grading benefit students?
This policy brief challenges four key ideas that underpin “equity”-motivated trends in grading reforms.
Commentary
Evidence-Based Learning, Curriculum & Instruction, Teachers & School Leaders
Doing educational equity right: The homework gap
If we care about doing educational equity right, we need to call the bluff of those who want to lower expectations for students’ effort “because equity.” Those so-called advocates need to do some of their own homework—and penance—as well.
Commentary
Governance
Horace Mann’s solution to political turmoil in education
Fights over books, an exodus from public schools, politically obsessed adolescents, the need for civics education—Horace Mann predicted it all back in 1848. Thankfully, this education luminary also provided wisdom and insight in the common school era for how we can turn down the culture war heat in modern times.
Commentary
Governance
Education reform is a bipartisan endeavor
In their FUSION essay “The Past and Future of Education Reform,” drawing heavily on their worthy
Commentary
Evidence-Based Learning, Governance, Teachers & School Leaders
Gag order? Or gag reflex?: State laws on teacher speech
A new report from PEN America claims that 1.3 million teachers, roughly a third of full-time classroom staff in the United States, are now forced to work under “educational gag orders.” PEN tallies forty pieces of legislation restricting teacher speech across twenty-two states as of November 1, 2023.
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